Dear Reader, It takes only the most cursory glimpse at history to make one realize that women haven’t had many opportunities to tell their stories. Sure, there are some notable exceptions, but for the most part women were overworked, undereducated, and just so busy taking care of everyone else and living up to everyone else’s expectations, that they didn’t have much time to get their stories out to the rest of the world.

But through the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, women fought for their rights and found their voices. Emerging from the shadows, they worked to right—or is it write?—past wrongs by sharing their stories of injustice and fighting for change.

By the time I was growing up in the 1960s, the women’s movement had gone mainstream. I was empowered to believe anything was possible. Even in the ‘60s, this was a new idea for a girl, but I had the good fortune to grow up in a family that really believed it. In the 1970s, Congress even passed Title IX, protecting equality for women in education, and it truly seemed that anything was possible for all women. I didn’t need to find my voice to fight perceived injustice—I could spend my energy pursuing my passions and interests. I could become a surgeon.

Little did I know that, eventually, I would join the ranks of the countless women who had gone before who found their voices to share their stories of perceived injustice.

“Only She Who Attempts the Absurd Can Achieve the Impossible” is the story of my fight against what I believed to be the injustices of systemic, entrenched bias against women, which I undertook with the hope that no woman would ever again have to unfairly suffer an injustice like the one I believed I had to face. A naďve hope, no doubt, but in offering this story, I close the book on this painful past and enter the next phase of my life. Once I was only Linda Brodsky, MD. Today, I am Linda Brodsky, MD, activist, advocate, mentor, blogger, and more. I hope you will join me in the new phase of my life by visiting my website—www.lindabrodskymd.com—and reading my blog—thebrodskyblog.com.

Thank you for sharing my story with me, and when you finish it, I hope you will share it with others who want to join this fight with knowledge.